I remember
hearing a colleague at work talk about this new TV series on SBS
entitled Pain, Pus and Poison which left me quite intrigued. As
my colleague explained, it was a documentary series about how a variety
of the world's most important drugs were created for pain relief and
some by chance.

Presented by
Michael Mosley, he takes the viewer on a very interesting journey
through history about how mankind treated a plethora of ills which most
would seem quite barbaric from today's standards. As Michael helps
explain the various scientific and sometimes not so scientific
breakthroughs, he even tests some of these methods on himself which left
me gobsmacked but this is what Pain, Pus and Poison is all
about.. the unexpected discoveries.

This
collection also features all three episodes aptly titled Pain (Episode
1), Pus (Episode 2) and Poison (Episode 3). The first episode focuses on
the brain, natural medicine and man made medicine as it targets
particular parts of the body. Episode 2, Pus focuses on the deadly
contagions that have spread through the world like the Black Death or
the Flu and how scientist continue to be challenged by these deadly
viruses. The last episode, Poison focuses on how deadly poisons may hold
the cure to some of the worlds deadliest illnesses like brain cancer
with the poison scorpion maybe holding the future cure.

Final
Thoughts?

As we follow
Michael on this evolutionary journey of medicine, we learn how the
common aspirin tablet was created to the most influential discovery of
all time, the creation of antibiotics which has lead millions of people
from around the globe being saved. It was also the forefathers of
chemistry who should also be thanked such as German pharmacologist
Friedrich Serturner who discovered morphine from opium and even tested
these drugs on himself.

Pain, Pus
and Poison is a very insightful journey from start to finish...